I couldn’t be any more excited by the hype and hoopla surrounding Ubisoft’s recently released Assassin’s Creed. No matter how the game fairs in the hands of the critical gamers en masse (Dawngrrl Review forthcoming – 2 hrs in!) it is the stunning production value that garners my girly girl attention. That’s right my beloved playfellows, Assasin’s Creed was produced by the stunning Jade Raymond, a chic chick; a smart, swanky, sexy gamer grrl!

Apparently, one summer found her indoors where she diddled a controller day in and day out, the result of which was a drive to make games herself.  Raymond went on to get a computer science degree from McGill University in Quebec, and her first job was programming games for Sony. A few years later, she moved into a producer role at EA, and she has since been producing games. “She’s French-Canadian. Somedays, she’s mostly Canadian and can be quite pleasant. Today, she’s obviously French.” Name that movie?  How much French vs. Canadian influence goes into her career may be a mystery, but the work she produces certainly puts her in the same arena as the testosterone filled influential of the gaming world, and all I can say to that is “Bravo honey!”

Raymond spends most of her surf time on Engadget, Bluesnews and Gamespot and her tube time shared between Lost, Alias, 24, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Six Feet Under. While I found her list of game favs a bit narrow (Resident Evil 4, Prince of Persia Sands of Time, Intelligent Cube, Tekken 3, Incredible Crisis, PaRappa the Rappa, Zelda: Ocarina of Time), I can admit to a love of Resident Evil and Price of Persia myself, and only wonder if Assasins Creed will make it on that list. 

There has been lots of press around this pretty poppet and along with it some vulgar comics of her slob knobbing some nasties. I can’t say I am surprised, in fact, it’s almost a rite of passage, or a hazing so to speak. She made it to a niche place in the gaming world, and being rewarded with pornographic reference material is par at best. My guess is that she’ll get over it, I certainly would. Ubisoft has her back, and hell, maybe she’ll get to date the Master Chief or Altair himself. 

Gamer girls are not all sitting around in sweatshirts, ponytails, and converse high tops.  We wear make up, like shiny things, cry at sad movies and still love to blow things up with a grenade launcher.  Jade Raymond is a perfect example; she’s hot, girly, and she plays (and produces) video games.  That is what makes this honey my crush of the month!

Kiss Kiss

Dawngrrl Gametart

For those you who read my tirade about a recent Newsweek Article that published essays on 11 women for their series on “Women & Power”, you may recall I was bent out of shape by the chosen examples.   Coincidently, I just attended a lecture given by Julianne Malvueax at a women’s leadership conference and, I walked out.    I didn’t do so by way of protest as much as simply not wanting to waste my time when there were so many other exemplary speakers. 

I think Julianne is an accomplished and educated woman, with degrees from MIT and recently appointed President of Bennett College for women.   She is a seasoned public speaker and does so with a charismatic nature and good sense of humor.    She’s proudly black and can speak well and true to cultural and racial issues, she’s a baby boomer so she has life experience, and she appears regularly on CNN and BET.  She has also hosted talk radio programs in Washington, San Francisco, and New York. As a writer and syndicated columnist, her work appears regularly in USA Today, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Ms. Magazine, Essence and the Progressive. A committed activist and civic leader, Dr. Malveaux serves on the boards of the Economic Policy Institute, Women Building for the Future - Future PAC, The Recreation Wish List Committee of Washington, DC, and the Liberian Education Trust.    I think her resume speaks for itself, she is without a doubt a woman with power both personally and professionally. 

However, I sit here as a woman, entirely offended at the precedent she sets to women every where by including jokes, comments, and innuendo about men in politics, random snibes and jabs at the chromosome complete populace at large.  This kind of crap facilitates the very thing that women are trying to overcome.  They want so badly to feel equal, and yet they stand up and shout about being better than.  

Tsk tsk, if you gonna get on a soapbox about being hypocritical, don’t be a hypocrite.

Kiss Kiss,

Dawngrrl Gametart

Here it is girls, the newest must have to your Vuitton handbag; the pink taser.   Taser international has designed a line of shocking weapons in pretty girl colors available in stores in later this month.   Even with all the controversy surrounding this electrifying device, along with all tasers, I struggle to side with the it’s “inhumane” part of debate.  If Big Baddie approaches me in a parking lot with all his evil do intentions, I would think that shooting him in the face with a pink 45 (do they make those?) might be much more damaging, let alone stabbing him repeatedly with my pink Via Spiga stiletto. 

With a $350 dollar price tag though, and a onetime use, I might wait for the next version, the one that vibrates, and holds my calendar, contacts, and all my mp3’s with matching pink earphones.  Now that would be totally fetch! 

Kathy Hanrahan of Taser International with her company’s C2 electronic-shock device, which comes in several colors.  You go girl!   Read the rest of the NYT article

Kiss Kiss

Dawngrrl Gametart

Is something wrong with the hand that feeds the corporate diversity policies?   I say no, it is what it is.  Corporate diversity provides protection to minorities from stereo types and prejudices; 1. Due to the litigious backlash of the offended (economical considerations, both monetary and the effect of a negative businesses reputation), and 2. To enhance the perspective and effectiveness of a company’s culture to more adequately represent the environment in which it does business. You’re company will prosper when your corporate hand is on the pulse of the people, and if the transgender-evenly-quartered-Latin-American-African-Asian-mildly-handicapped customer can relate because the person that answered the phone has a slight speech impediment, that’s just good business.    Yes, diversity is “right”, but I want to put that aside and leave ethics out for the purpose of this article.

Women in technology, or the lack there of, has for unrelated reasons come to my attention as my companies annual women’s conference is around the corner and that was the catalyst for some random web searches and article reading (Gnomedex: Not Just For Men, How MentorNet Makes a Difference – My Story – Jennifer Gibbons, Ph.D., 2007 Theme of National History Month) by Jillian Blume, to name a few.)

The thought has come to mind:  There is no prejudice of women in technology.  There is no inequality here, though there are certainly less women in the industry, but that is about representation, and it does not mean that women are treated poorly or given the evil eye for their estrogen based gender. Recruit women because you want representation to be well rounded in your organization, not because the activists are shouting foul play.

I don’t feel repressed because each of us walked up the same career hill both ways in the snow without shoes and I had to shlep breasts, nor have I come across a women in the industry walking around with a giant penis shaped chip on her shoulder.  Reversi; just becasue I am women does not mean I want you to hear me roar, or that I want to roar at all. Perhaps I’d like to chirp or purr or growl.

Some related quotes that provoked me: 

“Many people believe if we could just get rid of those few people, work environments would improve and because there would no longer be any prejudice or biases. What research shows is the reality is everybody, men and women alike, perceive and treat women differently from men. And these biases are not only gender biases.” Excerpts from Denice Denton’s talk at Google.

You bet I perceive women differently from men.  I perceive them differently in the grocery store or anywhere else exactly the same as I do in the office.   I treat them differently too. I will ask my 200 lb male coworker to refill the water cooler bottle because its empty but I would not ask my 105 lb female coworker if she would do it for me, and not because I don’t think she’s capable, nor am I for that matter.  Does this mean I am mistreating my male coworkers?  Am I excluding my female coworker from the water changing opportunity? I hate to have to point this out but we are different genders.  Does it mean I can’t develop software or build a house, no, but it doesn’t imply that I want to either. I want to be respected as a coworker on my merit but I would like to bring my vagina with me.

“Until women and people of color are fully represented in the fields of science and engineering, society is losing out on the talents of a vast number of potential contributors. Academic institutions are losing out. Corporations are losing out. Individuals are losing out. We all lose out.” - Carol B. Muller, Ph.D., Founder, MentorNet

The word REPRESENTED does not imply fault.  It’s not inequality, more men simply choose tech as a career. Yes sexual harassment should be eradicated, yes job repression based on gender should be eliminated, and the policies and laws are in place to care for that. My point is that I believe the issues we deal with are people related not gender related and I do not want nor do I believe it’s necessary to remove gender from common place interactions between people. It isn’t prejudice, it just is what it is.

Kiss Kiss,

Dawngrrl Gametart

It’s possible, though I don’t admit it, that I might be what some refer to as a “gamer”. I don’t have a penis, but as it turns out, they are not requisite, and there are quite a few of us out there lacking testosterone that enjoy an occasional, or quite regular, dose of video gamage. If blame required posting, which of course it does not, I would have to direct it towards that Boy Genius guy, who was the instigator in my gamer evolution. I think it began something like this “Dawngrrl, have you ever played World of Warcraft?”

On that day, my first warrior was born, a blonde alliance hottie, that lived to the ripe old age of (Level) 22. She was traded in for a hideous blue skinned dead chick with very bony knees so that we could join some Horde friends on a new server. She is currently 44, sleeping peacefully somewhere in Tanaris.

When the DS and the XBOX 360 were introduced, a healthy chunk of time was removed from the cleaning/laundry/chore allotment and dedicated to very importent world saving missions like Tomb Raider (who is the hottest cartoon chick alive and a total bad ass), Zelda (older - but still a noble ambition, I must save the princess from the treacherous evil Gannon or the world as we know will end and we will live in darkness for eternity. No one wants that.), Fight Night 3 (A healthy alternative to violence. Think of it like anger management therapy), and in about 6 hours an introduction to Rainbow 6.

I finished Tomb Raider over the holiday and loved it. The game is great. I recommend doing it at least normal or difficult otherwise that game goes by too fast. As a figure it out, puzzle solving action game it’s a thorough frontal cortex activator.

I love Fight Night 3, even though I rolled my eyes at BG when he bought it and he continues to knock me out (uh, better then up) every time we play. Career mode let’s you design your own character from soup to nuts (I mean like peanuts. Or almonds.) sign contracts, train, and win lots of money so you buy cool matching shorts and gloves. Another upside to this game is the tension and stress relief provided by pounding your opponent so hard, that blood, sweat, and saliva fly off his face in slow mo action! What more could a girl want? OK…I won’t answer that here…

I have Dead Man’s Chest for the DS - still in progress (fun but a little repetitive) and I was told just moments ago that a certain genius type guy happened to pick up King Kong for my pink box. Yes, for my nintendo - geez people, get your mind out of the gutter.

I’ll get back to you soon with my estrogen bent opinion on King Kong and the new Rainbow 6 Vegas for the 360. By the by, I am dawngrrl (naturally) on XBOX Live, stop in and say hello, or deal me in to a hand of Texas Hold ‘Em.